Tuesday, April 13, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the in-flight emergency onboard Apollo 13. With the call to Mission Control, "Houston, we've had a problem," the goal for the astronauts and flight controllers went from landing men on the Moon to bringing them safely back to Earth.

To mark the flight's four decades, author Andrew Chaikin shares the crew's insights into their "successful failure."

Forty years after astronauts called down from space reporting, "Houston, we've had a problem," it was Mission Control's turn Tuesday to call up to the crew with a similar but far-less life-threatening call.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, for 13 days, Universe Today is featuring "13 Things That Saved Apollo 13," discussing different turning points of the mission with NASA engineer Jerry Woodfill.

astroborg

Great link, Robert. I learned a number of things I hadn't heard of previously.

music_space

A team of scientists at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies who were called upon to figure out what was needed to separate the two parts of the Apollo 13 spacecraft using pressurized oxygen have received the Pioneer award from the Canadian Air and Space Museum.

I had the opportunity to take the Level 9 tour in Houston actually stand in the Apollo MOCR on the 13th. It was a strange feeling to be standing in that room 41 years later thinking about those words on the anniversary. A strange and fantastic feeling.

LM-12

How long did the Apollo 13 spacecraft fly in the CM/LM configuration - in other words, what was the duration between SM separation and LM jettison?

canyon42

Around three hours or so, I believe. Or at least I think it was that long after they jettisoned the SM before reentry--not sure at what exact point they also released Aquarius.

So that would be about 3 hours and 28 minutes in the CM/LM configuration — a configuration the crew probably never even trained for before launch. I believe that re-entry was about an hour after LM jettison.